Behind-the scenes maneuver greases skids for predatory lending bill

It’s clearer than ever that the predatory consumer finance industry is pulling out all the stops to advance its big Christmas tree bill[2].

Yesterday, in a quiet move that went mostly unnoticed by observers and completely unreported by the news media, House leadership removed one of the big hurdles that stood in the bill’s way.

As introduced, the bill was “serially referred” to two different committees — the House Banking Committee and, if favorably reported there, to the House Finance Committee. Yesterday, however, the referral to Finance was quietly [3]“stricken”[3] thus clearing the path for the bill to move directly to the floor if it’s favorably reported by the industry-friendly Banking Committee. This is in direct contravention of longstanding practice in the House which has always required such bills to get a Finance Committee review.

And you just know the fact that some of the Finance Committee chairs are long-time skeptics/critics of the small loan industry had nothing to do with that.